Iron Man 3

First thing you need to know about Iron Man 3 is that it is infinitely superior to Iron Man 2, in every way. In fact, Iron Man 3 is just downright entertaining, from the beginning voice-over to the tag after the end credits. Tony Stark has come a long way since we first saw him giving drunken speeches in Las Vegas and Robert Downey, Jr. inhabits the character in such a comfortable way that brings home Stark's emotional intensity in this film. Pepper Potts, too, is fiercer than she's ever been (& Gwyneth Paltrow, who's just been named People Magazine's World's Most Beautiful Woman, may have done something no one else has yet been able to--inspire me to work out). Don Cheadle is back as Colonel Rhodes for his second Iron Man installment, and while I always enjoy his work, he just doesn't bring quite the same dry sarcasm to the role as Terrence Howard did in the first movie.
As for the new faces to the franchise, Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce, and Rebecca Hall all play their parts magnificently. Kingsley especially is given the opportunity to really shine as anti-American terrorist The Mandarin. (If you're unfamiliar with Rebecca Hall, who doesn't get nearly enough screen time as Dr. Maya Hansen, go to your local video store and rent The Town. You're welcome.) I was also pleased that Jarvis, Stark's magnificent computer system voiced by Paul Bettany (who is marvelous), had a much bigger role in this film than in the previous two. Stark also meets a young boy in small town Tennessee who has no southern accent, but is still adorably precocious and steals almost every scene he shares with Downey, which is quite a feat.
The only glitch, if you'll pardon that joke, in the story is the overly complex and yet glaringly simplified baddies that Aldrich Killian (what a name!) creates. They come to be through a highly advanced neuro/biochemical science experiment, that thankfully they don't spend too much time explaining (I understood enough to know it wouldn't end well), but the side effects of this technology don't seem to make much sense and they're borderline bizarre (fire-breathing? really?). Maybe I don't get it because I've never read a comic book, but I preferred the straightforward greed of Obadiah in the first one. These Extremis patients do cause some exciting explosions, though, so perhaps we're not meant to look beyond that.
All things considered, Iron Man 3 is an excellent summer blockbuster and a good way to kick off the trifecta of films scheduled for release in the first three weeks of May (Iron Man 3, The Great Gatsby, & Star Trek: Into Darkness). Next up for Marvel fans is Thor: The Dark World, which hits theaters this November.